Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Truth be told, this New England Clam Chowder Dip is actually
the first soup I’ve ever turned into a dip, but I still stand by my title.
After all, what are soups, if not really thin, hot dips you eat with a spoon?

The point is, while this may be my first soup-to-dip conversion, it’s probably
not going to be my last. I’m looking at you, Mulligatawny.

I thought I was inventing something new here, but of course,
like everything else, many people had already given this a go. The funny thing
was, every recipe I looked at called for this to be served with sliced bread,
which I thought was odd. To me, potatoes are like the second or third best ingredient
in a chowder, so why not serve this with chips?

Besides that, my other big improvement was to up the bacon
content. Some recipes called for as little as two slices. Two slices of
bacon? What am I supposed to do with
that? So, I went with three times as much, and it turned out to be a very good
decision. While quite “bacon forward,” the clam flavor still came through, and
all in all, this really was very chowder-like.

The only semi out-of-the-ordinary ingredient used was a
spice blend called, “Old Bay.” This is not very hard to find in the big grocery
stores, but just in case, here is a link to make a your own. Besides, even if
you have some in the pantry, it may have been there for quite sometime, and
while Old Bay works well, old, Old Bay may not, so it might not be a bad idea
to make a batch anyway.Either way, I
really do hope you give this a great hot dip a try soon. Enjoy!

Friday, January 26, 2018

I was going to say this Eagles-inspired
cheese steak dip would be great to serve at your Super Bowl party, but I just
remembered we’re not allowed to use the term “Super Bowl” anymore, since that’s
aggressively protected by the National Football League’s lawyers. So, instead
of saying, Super Bowl, again, I’ll just say “Big Game.”

Regardless of what’s printed on your
invitations, this easy to make hot dip would make a handsome addition to your
snack table. Like all great party foods, it’s wonderful hot, warm, room temp,
and, I’ve heard from a reliable source, even delicious cold. By the way, never
print invitations to your Big Game party.

As I mentioned in the video, there are
several approaches for preparing the steak in this. You can chop it up raw, and
then brown it, or brown pieces of steak, and then chop it up, as we did here,
or, if you really want to save some time, you could brown up some ground beef,
which should also work pretty well in this.

For a vegetarian version, you could do
this with well-browned mushrooms, which I’m guessing would be very tasty. I’ll
never know for sure. Anyway, stay tuned for some kind of party food celebrating
the other city in this contest, but in the meantime I really do hope you give
this Philly cheese steak dip a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

This sticky garlic pork chop recipe seems too good to be
true. It only takes a few minutes of prep work, requires no tricky techniques,
and doesn’t call for any hard-to-find ingredients.And for the last time, Asian
fish sauce is not hard to find. It used to be, but it’s now carried in every
major grocery store, and I consider it a must-have in anyone’s kitchen.

Above and beyond the sauce, which is also our marinade, the
other key to this recipe is finding some nice, thick, bone-in pork chops. While
this will theoretically work with thin, boneless “chops,” we give ourselves
much more room for error when it comes to achieving the perfect doneness.

Speaking of which, I shoot for about 140 to 145 F. internal
temperature, which will produce a very juicy, tender piece of meat. Sure, you
may see a subtle, pale pink hue, but it’s still perfectly safe to eat, and you’ll be
amazed at how much nicer the texture is, especially after sitting in the
brine-like marinade.

Of course, if you’re one of these people who always cooks
pork well done, because your grandparents told you about the horrors of
trichinosis when you were a kid, then fine. Go ahead and cook it all the way
through, until it’s nice and dry, but you really are missing out. You’re still
not convinced? Either way, I really do hope you give these sticky garlic pork
chops a try soon. Enjoy!

For the marinade/sauce mixture (would probably be enough for
4 chops):

Friday, January 19, 2018

As I joked about in the intro, for something to be called a
“Hot Brown,” and still become so wildly popular, is a true testament to just
how amazingly delicious this really is.

Invented at the Brown Hotel in
Louisville, Kentucky, to help late night partygoers keep going, this hot turkey
gratin may be my all-time favorite, fork and knife sandwich.

And for something that seems so decadent, I don’t actually
find it to be all that heavy of a meal. Of course, that could be the bourbon
talking. I guess you could use milk instead of cream to lighten this up, but
unless you’re going to start eating these several times a week, I think you
should stick to the original formula.

I’m sure this would be okay with some thickly sliced turkey
from the deli, but roasting your own is pretty easy, and you can use the
leftovers for a few less extravagant sandwiches. Either way, I really do hope
you give this Kentucky classic a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for the sauce (enough for 4 small or 2 giant
portions):

2 tablespoons salted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for grating on top

pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

salt, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne to taste

For the turkey (enough for 4 portions):1 teaspoon oil or butter to grease baking dish

2 pound boneless turkey breast

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon herbs de Provence, or other dried/fresh herbs of
your choice

- Roast at 350 F. to an internal temp of 148 F.

For each Hot Brown:

2 pieces white bread, toasted

6 ounces roast turkey breast (3 thick slices)

3 slices of tomato

enough prepared cheese sauce to cover

grated Pecorino Romano for the top

paprika or cayenne for the top

2 slices bacon, precooked

chopped Italian parsley

- Finish under a low broiler, or in 475 F. oven until the
sauce is bubbly and browned, and the bacon is cooked. To cheat, you can cook
bacon crisp separately, and just top the finished dish, but I think it tastes
better if you brown with the bacon on top.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

I’ll admit to being
pretty underwhelmed the first time I had a chocolate croissant, or “pain au chocolat,”
as I’d mispronounce it; but eventually I realized the relatively sparse amount
of chocolate wasn’t any kind of stinginess, but rather the true secret behind
this amazing pastry.

Properly done, this
should ride that line between sweet pastry and a savory bread, so don’t overdo
it with the chocolate chunks; otherwise you’ll lose that beautiful balance. Other
than that, not much can go wrong. Just be sure to bake them until nicely
browned, and let them cool before enjoying.

While this will work
with that dough in the tube, I’d like to think you’d make a batch of your own
dough using our recently posted croissant recipe. Don’t worry, it only seems
like a lot of work. Either way, I really do hope you give these chocolate croissants
a try soon. Enjoy!

Friday, January 12, 2018

The biggest problem with Chicago-style deep dish pizza,
especially for a New Yorker, is that it’s called “pizza.” I’m not sure what
else it could’ve, or should’ve been called, but when you grow eating
thin-crust, and all of a sudden someone hands you a plate of this, with a fork,
and calls it pizza, it’s quite the shock to the system.

Having said that, for the home cook at least, this deep dish
pizza is actually much easier to pull off than your classic thin-crust, which
really benefits from a 700 F. pizza oven. Another advantage is that we don’t
have to worry about too much, or too many toppings, which is usually the fatal
flaw of a poorly made NY-style pizza.

One key, besides the buttery, cornmeal-infused crust, is to
be sure your sauce is very thick, and flavorful. Some Chicago pizzerias simply
use seasoned, coarsely crushed tomatoes, but I prefer using a sauce, as long as
it’s reduced at least as much as you see here. Your favorite will work, but
just in case you don’t have one of those, here’s a link to our official pizza sauce recipe.

I went with a pretty basic sausage and cheese version here,
but you can, and probably should, add other things like peppers, mushrooms, and
onions. Same goes for switching up the cheeses, but I do like the combo of
fresh, and firm mozzarella. I don’t think it’s quite as good if you use all
one, or the other. Regardless, I really hope you give this “pizza” a try soon.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

This Denver omelet was one of the first things I learned how
to make professionally, during my brief, but exciting career as a short order
cook in high school. So, it was a little disconcerting to learn when I arrived
at culinary school that everything I had done was totally wrong.

According to the chefs teaching me how to make a classic
French omelet, my Denver omelet was overcooked, over-browned, and included too
many ingredients.It was made very clear
that if I made that for my exam, I would fail, which was confusing since I
thought they were really good, and the people at the diner where I’d worked
seemed to agree.

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate both styles of
omelet, and understand they really are two entirely different things. I’m not
sure exactly why, but I seem to prefer the softer French version for breakfast,
and this heartier American-style for lunch, or dinner. Maybe it’s the browning,
or denser texture, but it really does make for a great “can’t figure out what
to have for dinner” idea.

As with all omelets, feel free to toss in anything you want,
but just be sure to cook it long enough before adding the eggs.To me there’s nothing worse than an omelet
with crunchy, undercooked vegetables in it, and that’s really the only way to
screw this up. But, no matter what you use, or when you enjoy this, I really do
hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Friday, January 5, 2018

I used to do a new chicken wing video every year before the
Super Bowl, but that yearly ritual stopped when I sort of ran out of things to
do with them. Being from Western New York State, where chicken wings are as
much a religion, as they are a snack, I didn’t want these posts to become
gratuitous and contrived.

However, this year I was inspired to reestablish the
tradition after enjoying an appetizer called “Chennai Chicken,” served at Dosa,
which is one of my favorite Indian restaurants in San Francisco. Their version
features thin strips of breast coasted with a ton of spice, and deep-fried to a
gorgeous brick red.

It’s one of those dishes you can’t stop eating, no matter
how badly your mouth is burning, and I thought it would make a great approach
for a batch of Buffalo wings. Since they’d never published the recipe, I did a
lot of guessing here, but think I got pretty close. One of the key ingredients
is an Indian spice blend called garam masala, which isn’t too hard to find, but
if you can’t, here’s a link to a recipe for making your own.

As usual, feel free to alter the spice amounts as you see
fit, but as I said in the video, do not skip the rice vinegar sauce. It really
makes the dish. I’m not sure if these wings are too exotic for your Super
Bowl party, or if your guests are not exotic enough for them, but I really hope
you give them a try anyway. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

I much prefer teaching to preaching, but this time I’m
attempting to do both, with the hope that you might introduce this delicious
breakfast bowl into your morning routine. I’m not sure if an apple a day really
does keep the doctor away, but I do know that being in the drive-thru line
every morning, doesn’t.

We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of
the day, which may or may not be true, but I’ve always found it to be the most
difficult meal of the day.There never
seems to be enough time, and so it’s easy to get into a rut, resorting to questionable
choices such as sugary cereal and milk, or fast-food breakfast sandwiches.

As far as specific ingredient choices go, I like to use chilled
Honey Crisp, or Fuji apples, and, as I mentioned in the clip, sheep’s milk is
my preferred yogurt. Some say it’s easier to digest, and it contains higher
amounts of linoleic acid, which apparently helps with fat loss, but I simply
prefer the taste. Just be sure to use a plain yogurt, since many flavored varieties
contain a shocking amount of sugar.

So, whether you try this to help with that
New Year’s resolution, or you’re just looking to add some variety into the
morning routine, I really do hope you give this Ben Franklin breakfast
bowl a try soon. Enjoy!